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Database startup 10gen just signed up Red Hat, the open-source software company, and Intel, the chipmaker, as investors, the startup announced today.

10gen makes MongoDB, a relatively new kind of database known as NoSQL. NoSQL's name contrasts it to SQL, a language used to access conventional structured databases.

NoSQL is one of the hottest new things to hit the enterprise and Web apps. It lets applications easily scoop up and analyze massive amounts of information from all sorts of sources using low-cost servers—which makes it well-suited to so-called "big data" problems.

The company won't disclose how much money Red Hat and Intel put in, but with these contributions, 10gen's latest round of funding now totals $50 million.

At the time of that deal, 10gen filed documents indicating that it still had an extra $8 million worth of shares to sell as part of that round. Filling out the rest was the CIA's venture fund, In-Q-Tel, which made an undisclosed investment; Intel; and Red Hat.

10gen has raised a total of $73 million in venture capital. That's twice as much as its nearest competitor in the NoSQL space, Couchbase. While it's duking it out with several other startups, it's gradually becoming the dominant player, its executives say. For example, MongoDB programming is one of the most sought-after tech skills by employers, according to Indeed.com.

"You're seeing this big change in database tech right now," says 10gen CEO and cofounder Dwight Merriman. This is thanks to "the umbrella trend" of "big data" which is built on technologies like NoSQL and Hadoop, with both of them often used together.

"Traditional relational databases are not going to go away," he says. But NoSQL is "starting to be [used] just as much."

Disclosure: Dwight Merriman, the 10gen cofounder and CEO, cofounded Business Insider and is an investor and board member. Kevin Ryan, a 10gen cofounder and board member, is also a cofounder and the chairman of Business Insider.

Disclosure: Kevin Ryan and Dwight Merriman, the founders of 10gen, are investors in Business Insider.